


Hierophant and Fool

by Etnoe



Category: The Tempest - Shakespeare
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 14:58:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3982363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etnoe/pseuds/Etnoe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prospero has reasons for being indulgent with Caliban, in the early years on the island.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hierophant and Fool

With a scuffling scramble and the slap of bare feet on stone, Prospero finds himself with company. "Teach me something!" Caliban says, as eagerly as another child would demand a story.

"What would you like to know?" Prospero smiles at the pup before turning back to grinding seedpods. It was fortunate that Miranda had been able to keep Caliban busy until now; if he'd entered the cave a few moments earlier, he would have disrupted the chanting that unlocked the magic within the seeds.

"I want to know what you know," said Caliban. "I want to know everything!"

"Two spoons of this powder," Prospero said, and held up a pinch of the seedpod powder he was holding, "will dry up water with just the right word."

"Two spoons dry water!" Caliban sang. "Teach me more!"

"A duke must bow so low-" Prospero indicated with his hand "-before a king. But only when the situation calls for it, for even a king may think too highly of his own importance."

"Bow so low," said Caliban, holding his arm at the level that Prospero had shown.

"Four twelves are forty-eight," said Prospero.

"Forty-eight," Caliban parroted. "More, more!"

Prospero held up one hand, carefully emptying the mortar of the powder he had, sifting it into a pouch. As the trickle of powder steadied, he spoke again, "One day, when you die, there will be angels, who will know what you know; and they will be amused even as they deliver their Master's judgement of you. And then you will know that you know nothing."

Caliban leapt back as if scalded. "Oh! After all the teaching, I'll know nothing? I must teach Miranda before that happens!"

"You like thinking that you know more than her, don't you?" Prospero said, and Caliban broke into peals of satisfied laughter.

"Yes, you do." Prospero shook his head. That the little beast would hold himself so high, when his powers were so low; that he would pretend to know anything at all when the bitter, enticing truth was that there was an infinity of learning in the world...

Prospero laughed at himself. "This is why I keep you, devil's child."

Caliban said nothing, but only grinned, sly and silly. He dashed for the entrance of the cave, gloating: "Miranda! I know something!"


End file.
